Free The Marriage Intervention by Hilary Dartt Page B

made me come,” he said.  
    Dr. Strasser smiled, but it was a thin, almost condescending smile and instead of answering, he continued looking at Paul, forcing him to provide a better answer.  
    “Geez, this is worse than being on the stand in a courtroom,” Paul said. He shifted in his chair. “The truth is, I thought things were fine until Josie said she wanted to work on our marriage. I admit she’s been a little, um, critical lately, and I’m often relieved when I get called into work on my days off. But I just thought it was, you know, that time of the month or something. She seems happy at work, she’ll be the principal next year. I mean, I didn’t really think anything was wrong. All relationships have their ups and downs, right?”  
    “Yes, they do,” Dr. Strasser said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t decrease the frequency and severity of those down cycles. Now. I don’t want to make any assumptions here, so let me ask each of you a question. At this point do you want to remain together, to stay married?”  
    Josie laughed, an ugly, barking sound, and looked at Paul.  
    “Of course,” she said. “We both do.”  
    A tiny flame of fear flickered somewhere between her chest and her throat. Did Paul want to stay together? He hadn’t said anything to indicate otherwise. He thought their marriage was fine. Fine! But who wanted fine? Who wanted mediocre? Shouldn’t their marriage be good, or even great?  
    Not even a second had passed, but Dr. Strasser was looking expectantly at Paul. Josie’s stomach fluttered wildly.  
    To her immense relief, Paul nodded. “Of course,” he said.  
    “Good. Okay. Let’s begin with what is working. What’s good about your marriage?”  
    “He’s my best friend,” Josie said.  
    “Oh, really?” Paul answered. “I am pretty sure—positive, actually—that Summer and Delaney are your best friends.”
    Yikes.  
    “We tell each other everything,” Josie said.  
    “No offense, Josie, but I think you might be delusional. You didn’t even tell me we were having problems.”  
    “I’d think you would have noticed on your own.”
    “Let’s not turn this into an argument,” Dr. Strasser cut in. “I just want each of you to share a few things that are working for you. Josie’s given us one. It’s your turn, Paul. What is working right now?”
    Paul shrugged.  
    “Well, I feel kind of stupid saying this now, but I always thought Josie was supportive of my career. We both have big aspirations and I thought it was something we had in common.”  
    “I am supportive of your career!”  
    Both Paul and Dr. Strasser looked surprised at Josie’s outburst, which exited her mouth in a shriek. “I am supportive,” she said in a calmer voice. “But not when it completely ruins any time we have together.”  
    “Perhaps I should have done this at the beginning, but I wanted to jump right in since you were a bit late,” Dr. Strasser said. Josie closed her eyes to keep from rolling them and Dr. Strasser went on, “Let’s lay a few ground rules. During every appointment, I will ask questions that I want each of you to answer without interference from the other. I promise you, you’ll get a chance to respond. In fact—” he paused and opened a desk drawer, producing two pads of lined paper and two pens, which he handed to Josie and Paul— “Here. Take notes. This way you won’t forget what you want to say.”  
    The rest of their appointment was fairly amicable, if a little uncomfortable. And very revealing.  
    Apparently, Paul felt like their sex life had gone downhill to the point of being completely nonexistent. He felt like Josie was a hypocrite for talking about how his work had taken over his life. He even said she had evolved into a cold, closed-off stranger with a propensity for angry outbursts.
    “So you said you thought everything was fine, but it didn’t take much prodding from Dr. Strasser here to bring all of this to